Pedro Brugada

Head of Heart Rhythm Management Centre

MD PhD

University of Brussels, UZ-Brussel-VUB, Brussels, BE

Research areas

Biography

Personal History

Pedro Brugada Terradellas was born in Girona, Spain on August 11, 1952. Although his parents were both farmers with no connection to medicine, he, along with two of his three siblings, went on to study medicine in Barcelona and specialise in cardiology.¹

During his studies, he initially intended to specialise in haematology, but following the birth of his daughter at age 22, he accepted a position in cardiology and completed his training at the age of 26.^{2, 7}

Dr Brugada is known for his discovery of Brugada Syndrome, which was named after him.¹ In 2004, he installed an automatic defibrillator in the chest of football player Khalilou Fadiga after he collapsed during the warm-up to a match.³ He is a highly experienced lecturer and has said that the speech that affected him the most was the one he gave at his village cemetery when his father died in 1999.⁷

Dr Brugada lives in Belgium and is married to Kristien Van Caelenberg, a cardiovascular intensive care nurse, together they have five children.^{1, 5} Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends. His interests include history, music, sailing, painting, classic cars and golf.²

Academic History

After high school in Girona, Dr Brugada enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona in 1969 and graduated in 1975. He worked as an intern at the Hospital Clínico de Barcelona and obtained a temporary position in the Hospital of Sant Pau i Santa Tecla in Tarragona.

After completing his cardiology training, he moved to the newly-established Maastricht University for a six-month fellowship. He was accepted by Professor Hein Wellens, who was the new Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiology, at Maastricht’s Academic Hospital.

His academic research led to the discovery of the heart disease known as Brugada Syndrome; a genetic defect that causes cardiac arrest and arrhythmias.⁴ It was first uncovered when Dr Brugada and his brothers observed an unusual pattern in the electrocardiogram readings of patients who had died suddenly.⁶

Most of his research activity was initially focused on understanding the cause of arrhythmias, but after discovering Brugada Syndrome in 1986 this became his main area of focus. Dr Brugada is also fascinated by classic electrophysiology mechanisms. More recently, he has been looking at the application of artificial intelligence in rhythmology, the circulatory system of the drosophila fly and all applications of hybrid surgery in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias.²

Career Overview

Dr Brugada was a General Practitioner in the Pyrenees and then practitioner of Internal Medicine in Tarragona. After his time in Tarragona, he joined the emergency services of the Social Security in Barcelona, followed by a residency at the Clinical Hospital.

In 1979, Dr Brugada moved to the Netherlands as a researcher at the Cardiac Electrophysiology Clinic of the Maastricht University to train in Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology alongside Professor Hein Wellens.¹ He became a teacher and lived there for twelve years. In 1982, he presented his doctoral thesis at Maastricht University, where he was granted the position of Director of the Clinical Electrophysiology Laboratory and, later, Professor of Cardiology.⁵

In 1990, he moved to Aalst in Belgium to create the first arrhythmia unit in the country at the Department of Cardiology of the OLV hospital directed by Dr Eric Andries. After 17 years of successful clinical work and research, he moved to the University Hospital of Brussels to develop an international Heart Rhythm Management Centre. He was then appointed Chairman of the Cardiovascular Division until 2017 and is now the Scientific Director of the Cardiovascular Division.

Dr Brugada was President of the Spanish Society of Cardiology, a member of the American Heart Association, the European Society of Cardiology and the Belgian Society of Cardiology, among many others.⁶ He was also appointed an honorary member of the College of Physicists of Girona and entered the Royal Academy of Medicine of Seville as an honorary academic in 2017.⁶

He has been widely published, covering over 1,000 scientific papers in some of the most prestigious scientific journals of the field, including Revista Española de Cardiología, Europace and Circulation.⁵ He is the Head of Heart Rhythm Management Centre at Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussels (UZ Brussel) and a professor of Onze Lieve Vrouw Ziekenhuis Aalst, Belgium.

Career Timeline²

1969 - 1975: Medical School, University of Barcelona School of Medicine, Barcelona, Spain
1976 - 1979: Resident, Cardiology
1979 - 1980: Research Fellow, Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology, University of Limburg, Maastricht
1980 - 1984: Assistant Professor, Department of Cardiology, University of Limburg, Maastricht
1982 - 1990: Director, Clinical Electrophysiology Laboratory, University of Limburg. Maastricht
1988 - 1990: Head, Division Coronary Disease, Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases, University of Limburg, Maastricht
2009 - 2011: Chair, Fellowship Committee European Heart Rhythm Association
2011 - 2016: Chair, Cardiovascular Division, UZ Brussel
2016 - 2017: Scientific Director, Arrhythmia Unit, GVM Italy
Present: Head, Heart Rhythm Management Centre, UZ Brussel
Present: Scientific Director, Cardiovascular Division, University Hospital UZ Brussel
Present: Chief Executive Officer, Medisch Centrum Prof P Brugada, Aalst, Belgium
Present: Director, Arrhythmia Unit Hospiten, Estepona, Spain

Recognition²

1999: Fritz-Acker Stiftung Award, German Society of Cardiology
2001: Cardiologist of the Year 2001, Paris, France
2003: First Prize at the European Society of Cardiology, Vienna, Austria
2008: Mirowski Award, San Francisco, USA
2009: Einthoven Gold Medal, European Heart Rhythm Association
2012: Gold Medal, European Society of Cardiology
2012: Ebony Spoor in the Flemish Parliament8
2017: Honorary Lecture FAFA. Frankfurt, Germany
2019: Grand Prix Scientifique 2019, Institut de France, Fondation Lefoulon-Delalande
Andrés Bello Order of Venezuela
Medalla Josep Trueta of the Catalan Government
Honorary Great Civil Medal from the Flemish Government
Golden Spoon for Social Appearance